Course Description

American Literature, Writing I is a reading and writing course for 9th and 10th graders which develops critical literacy and thoughtful written expression.

The reading component is a thematic study of some of the greatest works of American literature. We read poetry, short stories, and novels, along with some of our country’s founding documents and greatest speeches. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner and Arthur Miller are among the great authors we study together. American heritage and identity are emphasized as the tutor asks students to wrestle with our national past and how that past affects and speaks to our present American culture.

Students write a typed essay or creative piece approximately every three weeks. These pieces cover a range of written expression: reflection, exposition, persuasion, literary analysis, narrative, poetry, etc. While encouraging academic thinking, these assignments sharpen writing skills and enable students to mature as communicators. Students participate in writing exercises which hone diction, syntax, paragraphing, outlining, grammar mechanics, etc. One significant emphasis of this course is learning how to produce a process term paper which includes research, source selection, thesis development, strategies for structure, citations, and a works cited page.

Back for their third year, New Rep Theater's Classical Repertory Company put on their Shakespeare workshop here with us. This year's play is is Romeo and Juliet, which was read in all our English tutorials.

The New Rep players came to New Hope today and put on two Shakespeare workshops (one for middle school, one for high school). All English tutorials have been reading Macbeth in anticipation of the day, and it was a rousing success!

Our guest blogger today is Benjamin Wassell, a New Hope Senior who wrote this paper, “Join the Free”, for his Junior-year American Literature class with Mr. Westrate. In it, he argues that the liberal arts must not be eclipsed by skills-based education.

Join the Free

What do we consider to be the best education? In our current era, education attempts to fit what appear to be the needs of society. A common message is that what we need are men and women who have studied and specialized in certain skills. While this educational system has produced jobs, advancements in technology and medicine, and economic wealth for some, it is debatable if it has succeeded in producing a society geared toward the common good. Whether it’s the opioid crisis, sexual scandal in Hollywood, public fraud and fake news, or a population addicted to smartphones, a skills-based education does not seek to combat any of these problems. It just so happens that the educational solution to so many cultural ailments has been around for centuries. It is, in short, the liberal arts.We cannot let the liberal arts be eclipsed by skills-based education, for while a skills system does create effective workers, it does not bring those workers to a life driven by truth, beauty, and concern for the common good, which is actual freedom.

In Classical Lit today, we looked at Book 18 in The Iliad, specifically the shield of Achilles. A centerpiece of the story, the extended description of the piece of armor (called an ekphrasis) may seem at first glance out of place.

We hear it all the time: “What exactly is New Hope?” Our students call it the question! Because New Hope doesn’t easily fall into a traditional institutional category, it is easy to get confused. In fact, we often laugh about how many words it sometimes takes to explain who we are and what we do.

New Hope Tutorials provides high-quality small-group education for middle and high school homeschoolingstudents on Boston's North Shore and beyond. We offer full-year courses in a variety of disciplines,as well as 6-12-week short courses and workshops for students as young as eight years old.

New Hope is a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit. All donations are tax-deductible.